One reviewer said 'think of all the cliches' and they said that the book was 'twisty', 'unputdownable' etc. I thought of several other cliches - this feels like a book written to appeal to the masses. It's got the shock horror element, the perverted element, the 'twist' but it reads like a exercise in creating the perfect read in a certain type of thriller / domestic genre. It was this knowingness that really put me off.

A really gritty book but some parts I found hard to read. Sophie comes from a average and innocent background and goes on to attend oxford university drawn into a world of privilege. What starts out as trying to fit in turns into something a lot more sinister. The tale flits from julianne to Sophie and from past to present. You can never outrun the past.

I took a night to sleep on this before writing the review. I'm not sure how I feel about this book-upset, angry, disgusted, horrified... but, then I have to admit I feel a lot after reading this and that is what I think it was meant to do. I was hoping for the fun of a thriller after some heavier and more serious reading lately. I did not get what I was looking for.

The two time lines thing and two perspectives thing sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. It was fairly easy to see the connection right away. Sure, James is a common name, but it felt safe to assume they were the same person. Holly's story starts without any misconception that it will end in a happy way and Julianne's story starts with the same foreshadowing. Holly was one of the few likable characters in the entire thing, only other character worth anything was Stephen. She was trying to figure out who she would become and how to escape her own bubble into the real world. Unfortunately, she ran into the wrong people. They gave her an extremely skewed version of life. Unless my college experiences at the exact same time were just different because they were in the much derided US. BTW, having this horrible people say Americans are terrible was almost a compliment!

I was a little more unsure about Julianne. Then I read chapter 22. Nothing they did to try to redeem her in any other part made up for that. Everyone else was just a waste of oxygen. Why introduce a character who works for a website that rates women's looks? And why make it seem outrageous when one character responds with "Are you f---ing kidding me?"

Overall, I can't say it was a horrible book. It made me feel. It didn't really make me think about anything new. I'm a woman and there was nothing I hadn't already thought about here.

3.5 stars
I am in two minds about this book. It did hold my attention to the end and I found the story gripping. However, the characters were cliché and their actions unrealistic; the ending disappointing.

This book was a rather mix up of genres and I really struggled to read to the end. I cannot offer much constructive criticism other than to say I wasn’t keen on the graphic details and thought they were unnecessary

Brilliantly written with just the right amount of crudeness to really hate some of the main characters.
Coming of age story in the modern world where just about anything goes!
Although the book does flip back and forth in time, it's very easy to follow each person's story and the end ties up well.
I really enjoyed reading this book even though it was quite graphic regarding sexuality and violence but I don't think it was far-fetched and could see the events happening in real life.

This book had me so fascinated from the beginning. I just had no idea what was going to happen every time I turned the page. This book was very well written and I loved that it kept me curious until the end. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

Found this book difficult to read. Began by enjoying the twists and turns of the book with the son discovering material on his computer relevant to what his father had been involved in. Felt great sympathy for the mother and son but soon found I was unhappy continuing with the story. Dark and scary - not my kind of story although well written by the author.

I am gonna be upfront here. This book is not for someone who doesn’t like sexual abuse or descriptive sex scenes. That being said, it addresses many topics that aren’t talked about very often.

James, Ethan, and Aly are all rich kids in college who have a sense of entitlement. They befriend Holly who isn’t as experienced as any of them in any aspect. Holly tends to let her desire to fit in take control but she trusted her new friends.

Twenty years later, the gang still remains as friends together with their wives. Things get heated over a couple of glasses of wine and the real secrets come out.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Another debut I love it and wow did this author deliver.
Enjoyed the storyline, what a dark and sinister read....
It makes us ask how well do we really know people close to us....
Really enjoyed the two timelines I must say.......
Four students meeting in college.....
Then move on to present day and it follows on with the life of one of the students....
The characters I didn't like so much but doesn't that make for a good read, the author must be doing something right....
Unlikeable, dark & devious characters I thought..
Not a book for the faint hearted....
While I found it a slow build, it had the hairs on the back of my neck standing throughout.. Slightly graphic in places too.....
A brilliant debut well worth checking out....
You won't be able to put it down...

I picked this off the bookshelf as it had been there for a while. I started reading it Saturday morning and have just finished Monday night. When I started I thought it didn’t seem too bad and then inconsistencies started to show ..
Twins, yet he is in the year above her. Twins yet at one point, she was 14 and he was 15?! What?

Featured gang rape which too it from a interesting story to one I didn’t really want to read anything. Also in the kindle version her name is Sophie not holly? I had a paperback version to which said holly.

Too many inconsistencies and too many sensitive topics.

Enjoyed this book and figuring out where the past and present merged. Most of the characters are quite unpleasant and I wasn't a big fan of the sexually explicit parts of the plot, although I understand why they were there. It is dark but compelling. There isn't a huge amount of plot to speak of ... it's very much a character driven story.

Loved this. Although the characters are generally unpleasant they are interesting tersting and the story reads well. You have to keep reading because you want to know why certain events occur. This is a well written and well crafted novel and I gave it 5/5 on goodreads.

This was a brilliant debut novel, but be warned as there are graphic details of sexual abuse and rape. The story is told in two storylines by Julianne and Holly. In 1990 Holly, who is from a working class background, is an undergraduate at Oxford and is befriended by a group of wealthy students, including James and Julianne, most of them having no morals and are totally corrupt. In 2019 Julianne’s world is turned upside down when her son discovers something on the family computer regarding her husband, James. Julianne is hoping there is an explanation for what he has found but gradually realises that her husband was and is, a predator of young women. We then progress to learn of the link between Holly and the scandal that Julianne uncovers. It is a book that has a dark and sinister plot, with despicable characters and a shocking conclusion. It is a very additive read and one I couldn’t put down. Not a book for the faint hearted. I personally can’t wait to read B P Walter’s next novel.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I really enjoyed this novel and read it quickly from start to finish. The premise is fascinating and gripping, the writing well executed and the characters really fleshed-out, particularly the two point of view narrators.

A testament to the excellent writing: I was so surprised to find out that the author was male. The two female narrators were so well written that I assumed our author was female.

If you enjoy a bit of intrigue and conspiracy, along with a modern crime mystery - this is the book for you.

I really couldn’t get into this book. There wasn’t much of a hook at the beginning and there was too much going back and forth between story lines, it just didn’t grip me like other books have I’m afraid

I have to admit I had seen some reviews by bloggers on this and had seen that there was a trigger warning on it. From the start I enjoyed the author's writing and kept thinking I had come up against content that required the trigger warning but I was so so wrong!

While the opening content of the computer read as quite tough I thought I was done and settled into the story, a dual timeline with two narrators. It was the tale of a very privileged mother finding out her husband was harbouring something ugly on his iPad. This is where I hit the first lot of content which I found to be horrible, but we were cast back to the privileged land of Oxford, and a new student finding her feet who came up against people of extreme wealth who seemed to be all about the literature but who we secretly realise don't hold much worth for people they feel 'lesser' than them and I read on.

In the book we went on to more sexually explicit content, a gang rape, followed by even more harrowing images. A simple 'contains tough sexually explicit material' or the like would have done the job and to be honest it really, really irked me and after looking through a few reviews (okay I read all of them) on Amazon I was ready to quit but decided to go on. I will say I liked the author's style of writing and ability to create tension and settings, but obviously the explicit thing and lack of a warning really put my hackles up. Thanks to Avon for the book in return for an honest review. Rating: 3/5

With thanks to Netgalley and Avon for this ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

Julianne was happily married to husband James and they had a 17 year old son called Stephen. Julianne was from America but met James when they were students at Oxford University. One Christmas evening Stephen showed Julianne some disturbing documents that his father had accidentally saved in the family`s Dropbox files. Unable to believe what she was seeing Julianne decided to confront James.

Sophie was a working class girl from Essex who won a place at Oxford university. Sophie felt like a fish out of water until she was befriended by a girl called Ali. Ali preferred to hang out with her twin brother Ernest who was an aspiring MP and his friend James. Sophie was invited into their clique. Ali and Ernest were quite broad minded and invited her to sex parties. Sophie felt embarrassed and resolved to see less of the trio, However she had to quickly leave her course after a traumatic incident in the halls of residdents.

I knew I would enjoy A version of the truth from the first page. The plot was so intriguing I could of easily read the book in one day. If you enjoyed Anatomy of a Scandal you will like this book.

The story is told from the POV of Julianne in 2019 and Sophie in 1990. I should say the plot was dark and quite uncomfortable reading at times.reading. I initially liked Julianne until later in the book when Sophie `s full story came out.

The best part of the book was the row at Julianne and James dinner with their old university friends. I felt a cold trickle down by spine as Ernest revealed what he was willing to do protect his career.

This was a stunning debut, I look forward to reading more from BP Walter.

Hugely entertaining (and thought-provoking)...

I realised that B.P Walter is a man only when I read the author bio at the end of this book, which I downloaded via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found that amazing, as the story is told in two convincing female voices: Holly and Julianne. In fact I found the female characters (even) more credible than the male characters, one of whom – Ernest – did have a touch of the moustache-twirling Sir Jasper about him.

That aside, this debut psychological thriller was a roller-coaster ride, which seamlessly switched between Oxford University in 1990 and contemporary upmarket London. The Oxford scenes reminded me of Philip Larkin’s ‘Jill’, where working-class Holly desperately tries to fit into the milieu of privilege and entitlement.

How will rich, pampered Julianne resolve the cognitive dissonance of James being at once a predator of vulnerable young women (and young men) and being her loving husband? Read it and find out!

Along the way, characters like Ally and Louise, who turn a blind eye to their brother’s/husband’s ruthless aggression and manage to live with themselves are very well depicted. It’s not the type of book I’d normally read, but I’m glad I did. It greatly entertained me while recovering from a routine op.

This is a dual timeline story, Julianne in the present time married to James with a son and living a privileged life in Knightsbridge and Holly a scholarship student starting at Oxford University in 1990, feeling socially totally out of her depth she is befriended by a rich elite group...... but are they all they seem? When Julianne's son finds something on the internet her life is turned upside down...... has she ever really known her husband.

A dark compelling story that you have to keep reading, although hard at times as the subject matter is not easy reading, and there are many twists until you reach the conclusion but will written and well plotted